Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Morning.
[00:00:08] I'm going to be sitting down this morning.
[00:00:11] I'm sort of slightly struggling with my walking at the moment and so it's a bit difficult for me to stand for too long.
[00:00:21] But about 15 years ago, in a church that we were in then, we used to.
[00:00:25] We had a season of the preacher sat on a stool.
[00:00:31] It was kind of cool, you know what I mean?
[00:00:34] It was a season when we wanted to be cool. So we would sit there and just be cool. Now it's not so cool, but it's just needs, must.
[00:00:45] But I'm determined this morning that I'm going to read the Word of God standing up on one condition, that you stand with me.
[00:01:01] And this morning I'm really kicking off your Christmas for you.
[00:01:07] And that's what I'll be doing. So my title is, which will come up, I'm sure, is Fable or Faith Build. Fable or Faith Build. I love Christmas. Anyone here who doesn't love Christmas? Any Scrooge is here.
[00:01:29] But there is a huge danger about Christmas is that it gets hijacked by things that are not true, things that are made up, make believe, fairy tale.
[00:01:43] And somehow, as Christians, we have to negotiate through that.
[00:01:48] And the way that we need to do that is to determine and to realize absolutely and confess the things that are true and biblical. I'm going to read some of them this morning. So Luke 1:26.
[00:02:07] Now, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary.
[00:02:25] And having come in, the angel said to her, rejoice, highly favored one. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.
[00:02:38] But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was.
[00:02:45] Then the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and you will bring forth a son, and you will call his name Jesus, and he will be great, and he will be called the Son of the highest. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there will be no end.
[00:03:16] Then Mary said to the angel, how can this be?
[00:03:22] I do not know. A man.
[00:03:25] The angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the highest will overshadow you.
[00:03:36] Therefore also, that holy One who is to be born will be called The Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth, your relative has also conceived a son in her old age. And this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God, nothing will be impossible.
[00:03:56] Then Mary said, behold, the maidservant of the Lord.
[00:04:00] Let it be to me according to your word.
[00:04:05] And the angel departed from her. Amen. Please be seated.
[00:04:18] Amen.
[00:04:23] I want this morning to remind you of just how supernatural our faith was birthed in.
[00:04:34] Notice the story doesn't start.
[00:04:37] Once upon a time, around about this Christmas time, we will become a nation of what is sometimes called cultural Christians.
[00:04:53] A cultural Christian is somebody who doesn't believe the slightest iota of anything that is supernatural or divine, but somehow likes the values, enjoys the kind of the outflow.
[00:05:13] You know, the most famous atheist in Britain is called Richard Dawkins. Some of you may have heard of him.
[00:05:25] He wrote 20 years ago a book called the God Delusion, in which he did all his best that he could and has in the last 20 years tried to convince people to absolutely throw overboard any belief in God.
[00:05:41] Recently he described himself as a cultural Christian.
[00:05:47] He said, I don't believe in God, he said, but I do love singing hymns.
[00:05:53] In fact, particularly, he said, I love Christmas carols.
[00:05:59] He said, I guess that makes me a cultural Christian.
[00:06:04] And you're going to meet lots of cultural Christians over the next month. People who will fill the churches for the only time in the year.
[00:06:14] People who will go away from a service having song to their heart's content, great songs.
[00:06:22] They will go away ignoring the content, by and large, and they will just involve themselves in the Christmas festivities.
[00:06:31] It's all been a kind of fable, by the way. Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservative, she's also a cultural Christian. She has no faith whatsoever, doesn't believe in God, but likes the values.
[00:06:45] Bit like Kia Selama. He has no faith, but he likes people with faith.
[00:06:52] Presumably those of us who have faith don't protest when our homes are cold because the heating.
[00:07:00] Did I say that then?
[00:07:03] Okay, so this morning I really want to just outline and affirm to you that what I've read this morning is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It's words, it's a passage of scripture. It's truth to believe in. It's truth to stand upon. It's truth to walk in. It's truth to declare. It's truth, truth to proclaim.
[00:07:33] It's not once upon a time, it's at the right time. God sent forth his angel Gabriel to Mary. Don't you love it when God starts things.
[00:07:46] There's a kind of world that's in chaos and disorder. It's dark.
[00:07:54] And the Holy Spirit begins to breathe. And across the waters and God begins to have a plan for the earth. And he speaks life and light into the world.
[00:08:08] Let there be light. And there. It's lovely when God starts a plan. And here he's starting a plan.
[00:08:18] Mary.
[00:08:19] Here's the word of the Lord and begins to speak to her. So this morning, I want to really encourage you over this Christmas time to be able to navigate your way.
[00:08:32] And I know it's hard. I've had children myself, you know. We got five kids and 15 grandchildren.
[00:08:42] By the way, I notice nowadays, apparently when your wife is pregnant, you can say we are pregnant.
[00:08:50] So we've been pregnant five times and we gave birth.
[00:09:07] Do you remember Peter? Ann and I read it this last week. Peter says we have not followed cunningly devised fables.
[00:09:19] When we spoke to you of the power and coming of the Lord Jesus.
[00:09:25] He says we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
[00:09:32] I want to tell you this morning that an eyewitness is never at the mercy of a storyteller.
[00:09:38] That's so good. I'm going to say it again. An eyewitness, someone who's had personal experience, is never at the mercy to be persuaded by someone who's got a good tale and a good story to tell.
[00:09:53] He says we have not followed cunningly devised fables.
[00:10:01] Mary didn't follow a cunningly devised fable either.
[00:10:07] She heard and spoke and listened to the voice of God through Gabriel the angel.
[00:10:16] I want to say to us this morning, folks, that we need to rediscover. I love the word rediscover.
[00:10:24] But let me challenge you this morning. Have you yet analyzed, have you yet defined what you're trying to rediscover?
[00:10:35] Let me tell you the thing that we need to rediscover most in church today.
[00:10:40] We need to rediscover the wonder of the supernatural.
[00:10:47] I've sort of been around for quite a long time, and I've seen certain things and observed certain things, and I've discovered this, is that in church life today, the natural has become the norm.
[00:11:02] Whereas, in fact, God determined and birthed our faith wholly and completely in the supernatural. God did not intend the supernatural to end at the birth of Jesus. He intended that to be the very beginning, and not the ending of God at work in our lives. So I want to say to you today, if the Holy Spirit can come upon Mary, he can come upon you.
[00:11:35] It says the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and the Holy Spirit and the presence of God overshadowed her.
[00:11:46] I love that phrase.
[00:11:48] When the angel said to Mary, the Holy Spirit will come upon you because she said, how can this be?
[00:11:56] Does that remind you of anybody else in the scripture who said, how can this be?
[00:12:01] Can you think?
[00:12:04] Think of Nicodemus?
[00:12:07] You must be born again, Nicodemus.
[00:12:10] Why? Because it's a supernatural work. The work of salvation is a supernatural work. It's a God thing. It's not me putting my faith in Jesus. It's Jesus putting his faith in me.
[00:12:24] But how can this be? Said Nicodemus? Can I enter again into my mother's womb and be born? Oh, no, no, no, said Jesus. You've got it wrong. That's a natural birth. We're talking about a birth of the Spirit. The Spirit blows where it wills and you hear the sound, but you don't know where it's come from. That's how the Spirit of God brings the new birth into operation. It's a God thing.
[00:12:53] I have to guard against negativity in my kind of life and ministry, maybe because of age thing as well.
[00:13:00] But I do believe, folks, that we need in our church life to realize that people need more than the food bank now.
[00:13:08] They need more than good coffee.
[00:13:12] People's needs in our society, whether it's mental health, whether it's relational breakdown, whether it's poverty, the needs of people are so deep within our community nowadays, there is only one answer, and that is they need to be born again. When they are born again, their finances will change. When they are born again, their mental health will change. When they are born again, their relationship will change.
[00:13:42] You must be born again. How can it be said, Nicodemus? Mary said, how can it be that I can give birth to the child of God, to the Son of God, and that he would be born, or said the age of Gabriel. It's quite simple. It's this. The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of God will overshadow you. I just want to say to you this morning, folks, I'm just praying. I've been praying before I came out this morning that the Holy Spirit would overshadow you.
[00:14:23] If he can overshadow Mary, he can overshadow you.
[00:14:27] If he can come upon a young woman, probably 14 years of age in a grubby little town called Nazareth, he can come upon you in a beautiful town.
[00:14:40] And I want to say secondly, that when the Holy Spirit comes upon us and the power of God overshadows Us. Everything has to change.
[00:14:48] Things cannot stay the same again.
[00:14:53] How many of us this morning want to be more like Jesus? Oh, wonderful. Okay, Some of you don't. Okay. Some of you are there already.
[00:15:03] Some of you don't have a desire yet. Okay, I'll give you another chance. Some of you may have been converted now. Oh, yeah.
[00:15:14] Do you know how to become more like Jesus?
[00:15:18] It's when the Holy Spirit comes upon us.
[00:15:23] Fruit of the Spirit, says Paul.
[00:15:26] The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering.
[00:15:35] Anyone could do any of these.
[00:15:38] Love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness, goodness and self control.
[00:15:56] That speaks of Jesus, folks.
[00:16:00] How to become more like Jesus is to let the Holy Spirit come upon you.
[00:16:05] The fruit of the Spirit. So stop trying to be like Jesus and start asking the Holy Spirit for a deeper relationship.
[00:16:18] Pastors, this morning. Can I just say to you as well, you know, I've looked back in my ministry and it's not all been good, but there have been times in our ministry where we have just seasons. I talk about in over 40 years, seasons when we have known.
[00:16:43] When we came into the house of God on a Sunday morning, we knew that things were going to happen. It was that kind of a season.
[00:16:54] We didn't always know what was going to happen, but we knew that something was going to happen. It was in a season of the Holy Spirit. I'm praying this morning rediscover church that over this Christmas and into 2025, this will be a year in which this building or wherever you meet is marked out as a place in which the Holy Spirit is present that he will overshadow your ministries, your worship, Matthew, the ministry amongst the children. Those of you that serve the coffee, bless you for the person who, when I was sitting in the coffee on Friday came to me and said, can I get you something? I think what it was. I hadn't had a drink for quite a while, so it was time to either get out or go get.
[00:17:48] No, no.
[00:17:50] Bless you.
[00:17:56] We need in church to hear more about the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
[00:18:04] When Pentecostal churches started, it was Jesus. Savior, healer, baptizer, coming, King.
[00:18:09] Those were the four things that the early pioneers felt were so important that a Pentecostal church must convey.
[00:18:19] Savior, salvation, Born again, supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. Savior, Healer.
[00:18:34] We need to make time not only to pray over the sick, but to build up the faith of the sick so that they come into the house of God and they come into the community of believers believing that their sicknesses are going to be made whole by the power of the Holy Spirit that will come upon them. Let me tell you, this morning, my wife lays hands on my legs every single day because I'm believing that I'm going to walk. Well, I'm not accepting that at my age this is as good as it gets. I'm believing.
[00:19:13] I say to Anne every day, lay hands on me, folks. This morning, couples, God help you if you haven't got a partner or a spouse who's filled with faith and is willing to lay their hands upon that part of you that is sin.
[00:19:29] Young people, when you're looking for a spouse, looking for a girlfriend or a boyfriend, looking for a wife or a husband, you look for those people who are so filled with faith that when you're sick, they're not going to say, I'll phone the doctor. They're not going to say, I know some tablets. They're going to say, I'm going to pray the Holy Spirit to come upon your body and you're going to be healed in the name of Jesus.
[00:19:54] Okay? Secondly, I love this.
[00:19:59] It says that Mary became a carrier of the divine.
[00:20:04] Not only did the Holy Spirit come upon, she became a carrier of the divine.
[00:20:14] Mary, you found favor with God. You will conceive in your womb, bring forth a son and will call his name Jesus.
[00:20:26] Wow.
[00:20:32] How can it be? Well, with God nothing is impossible.
[00:20:39] I want to show you a similarity this morning. I've sort of had this kind of in me for years, the similarity between the Christian life and the months that Mary spent nurturing the Christ child within a womb.
[00:20:59] And for the purpose of this, men, you can have a womb because with God nothing is impossible.
[00:21:09] So I want you to imagine, put yourself in Mary's position at the moment. Women can do this probably a lot easier.
[00:21:16] It said the angel departed from her.
[00:21:23] And then things began to happen.
[00:21:30] I don't know whether she was conscious of a seed of the Holy Spirit being planted, but I know that there's no life without a seed.
[00:21:40] And she would suddenly notice. I won't go into the biology of it too much, but she would suddenly notice, wouldn't she, ladies? Certain things happening within her body and she would begin to realize that she was actually getting bigger.
[00:21:59] And then what would happen? There would be those little knocks inside the womb and she would see and feel evidence of life and those knocks would get bigger and she would feel the baby then begin to move.
[00:22:22] And I guess she would come to the point, getting close to the nine months and she would begin to think, what will Jesus, my baby. She already knew the name, of course. What would my baby look like? Moms do that. Well, fathers do that as well.
[00:22:46] We were always worried that my kids would look like me rather than Ann.
[00:22:52] Then finally the day would come when she would give birth to the Son of God.
[00:23:01] And she would know then and I guess that Jesus would have characteristics of Mary. Yep.
[00:23:09] He wouldn't have characteristics of Joseph because Joseph was not his father. But Jesus would no doubt carry characteristics, physical characteristics of Mary. I'm assuming it doesn't say, I want you to think this morning, what happens when you are born again.
[00:23:32] If you are born again this morning, I'm not going to ask you to put your hand up. If you're born again this morning, it is because at some point in your life, God Almighty reached down into the innermost parts of your being and planted a seed and that seed began to grow.
[00:23:56] Hallelujah.
[00:23:58] There is no proof of life without the evidence of growth.
[00:24:11] There is no proof of life without the evidence growth.
[00:24:18] And I guess never quite experienced this. But I guess in the physical makeup of Mary, some of those growing activities would be quite painful.
[00:24:33] It's not always easy, is it? Growing as a Christian, it can be hurtful at times. It could be painful at times.
[00:24:46] If you're a Christian, a born again believer today, you should be able to evidence in your life not only 25, 30, 40 years ago, you should be able to evidence today how God is developing and growing and increasing in your life.
[00:25:04] Shame on us. If spiritually or in our character, we're the same as we used to be. Now that's not God's purpose. God's evidence of life in us is that we are growing as Christians in our daily life.
[00:25:22] Do you feel those movements of the Holy Spirit? Do you feel the movements of God in your life?
[00:25:32] Well, here's something even more wonderful.
[00:25:35] Just as Mary longed for the day when she would see Jesus, I want to tell you this morning there's coming a day when the Bible says that you will see him as he is.
[00:25:53] Not only will you see him as he is, it says, but we will be like him because he's been in our womb, as it were. He's been in our inner man or inner woman.
[00:26:07] And the day is going to come when God is going to just give us a revelation. Hallelujah.
[00:26:17] He's going to give us a revelation who's looking forward to seeing Jesus?
[00:26:24] It's true.
[00:26:26] This isn't a fairy tale.
[00:26:28] This is not a fable. This is not once upon a time and they all lived happily ever after. We are going to live happier ever after.
[00:26:37] We are not just going to live happy ever after. We are going to live happier ever after.
[00:26:42] Oh, that's good. And finally, I want to come right to the last verse, spend a little bit of time on this.
[00:26:58] Mary said, behold the maidservant of the Lord.
[00:27:03] Let it be to me according to your word.
[00:27:09] Let it be to me according to your. I want you to remember that because at the minute we're going to be repeating it.
[00:27:16] Shall we have a try? Let's have a try. Now, I'll say it first. Let it be to me according to your word.
[00:27:26] That's not bad. Let's try again. Let it be to me according to your word. Now try by yourself. Let it be to me according to your word. Hallelujah.
[00:27:37] Here's a question.
[00:27:40] You see, Mary was initially fearful.
[00:27:47] Then she was full of unbelief.
[00:27:51] It's not looking good.
[00:27:55] Fearful unbelief.
[00:27:59] Finally, she came to the place where in the midst of her fears and her unbelief, she found a place of submission.
[00:28:11] Let it be to me according to your word. In other words, Lord, I don't know how this is going to happen. I don't know how we're going to get through, but I'm in.
[00:28:22] I'm in.
[00:28:24] Let it be to me according to your word.
[00:28:28] I sort of spent a bit of time this week just pondering over this thought.
[00:28:32] If Mary had not said that, would she still have been the one who bore God's son into the world?
[00:28:46] If she hadn't agreed, would the angel say, well, you're going to have the baby anyway.
[00:28:54] Or did God choose it knowing that she would accept?
[00:28:59] We don't know.
[00:29:02] What we do know is that eventually she came to the place where she said, lord, whatever you say, do it, do it, do it.
[00:29:14] I want to say to us today, as I kind of just come to the end of my third point, really, if we really want to be right at the heart of God's plan and purpose, we have to come to the place in our life. Sometimes we'll have some fears.
[00:29:32] Sometimes we'll find ourselves being surrounded by unbelief. But we have to come to the place where we say to God, thy will be done.
[00:29:41] Whatever you say, I will do.
[00:29:46] In order to get something from God, we have to be willing to be submissive to what he says.
[00:29:54] Say it again.
[00:29:59] One or two had forgotten.
[00:30:03] If we are going to allow God to do in our lives what he wants to do.
[00:30:13] If we're going to allow his word to be fruitful. Several things have got to happen. One, we've got to know what the Word of God says.
[00:30:22] I love the word of God.
[00:30:28] I'm sorry that so many preachers don't seem to preach out of the Bible nowadays. I don't know why, but I want to say to congregation today, if you want to receive something from God, you've got to know what he wants to give you.
[00:30:45] And there are scriptures, so many scriptures in this book that God needs you to embed into your life.
[00:30:57] He needs you see, the way the Holy Spirit works, He very rarely will come to you and give you a scripture. And you say, I've never heard that one before.
[00:31:10] What he will normally do, he will remind you of something that you have already committed into your mind and into your heart from the Word of God.
[00:31:23] That's a wonderful thing when that happens suddenly. It happens to us so often and a scripture comes up. We don't always know where it's from.
[00:31:32] We say, do you know where that scripture is from? I've just felt the Holy Spirit remind me. The Holy Spirit will remind us of scriptures if we take the time to embed them into our lives, then of course we have to be willing to agree with scripture.
[00:31:53] Oh, sorry, you can't just look for scriptures to bless you.
[00:31:59] And I've known a few people who look for scriptures to confirm that they could do what they already had determined to do already.
[00:32:10] Does that make sense? I'm not sure it made any sense to me.
[00:32:14] You know what I mean?
[00:32:17] You can't go to the scriptures from the point of view that I'm going to do something and I just want God to okay, what I'm going to do.
[00:32:27] That's not the way that we hear from God. We hear from God when we put everything before Him, a blank sheet of paper and say, lord, what do you want? What do you want to say?
[00:32:37] And he's saying, well, are you going to do what I say before I say it? I mean, why would God waste his breath trying to tell us things when he knows that we're already determined to do something else?
[00:32:50] But when we say, oh, God, speak to me and whatever you say, I will do, what an amazing thing.
[00:33:00] I've got some scriptures here.
[00:33:02] We're going to try it, right? I'm going to read out a scripture.
[00:33:09] And what are you going to say?
[00:33:16] Are you sure?
[00:33:20] What if I say a scripture that you don't really want?
[00:33:28] Well, that's up to you.
[00:33:31] Okay. Isaiah 54:17. Are you ready for this one?
[00:33:36] No weapon found against you shall prosper.
[00:33:46] Isaiah 26. You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you.
[00:33:58] You will search me and seek. Sorry. You will seek me and find me. Jeremiah 29. When you search for me with all of your heart.
[00:34:11] I think you could do a bit better than that. Or unless it's quite a few of you that are not agreeing.
[00:34:19] Come on.
[00:34:23] Revelation 3:11. Hold fast what you have that no one may take your crown.
[00:34:29] Let it be.
[00:34:33] Amen.
[00:34:38] I think you'll like this one. Therefore submit to God. James 4. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Let it be unto me according to your word. Amen.
[00:34:53] Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable, think only about such things.
[00:35:17] Shall I read again?
[00:35:24] Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, think only about such things.
[00:35:39] Be to me according to your word. Amen.
[00:35:47] Lastly, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love him.
[00:36:04] Let it be to me according to your word. Amen. Amen. Father, we just bow in your presence this morning.
[00:36:20] We thank you for those things that are true.
[00:36:24] And we have reminded ourselves this morning of those things of which we have been heart witnesses.
[00:36:35] Not with the eye, but with the heart.
[00:36:39] We have experienced and have known the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. We have been heart witnesses of His Majesty. And therefore we will not be deceived by fable, or by make believe, or by that that is untrue.
[00:36:59] And I pray this Christmas time that you will help each one of us to navigate our way through this whole circus that Christmas has become in our nation.
[00:37:12] That, Father, our Christianity shall not just be temporary, it shall not just be soulish, it shall not just be cultural, but it shall be committed. It shall be deep. It shall be rooted in the revelation of your scripture that God sent his angel to a woman called Mary.
[00:37:35] Father, help us in our lives to develop and grow. We want to become more like you. Jesus, help these young people here. I pray that in this church they will grow up in a church in which the supernatural is the normal, not the natural.
[00:37:55] That Lord, they will begin to see and experience the power of God in operation.
[00:38:00] I pray that people will come into this church and they will be truly born again of the Spirit.
[00:38:07] They won't just come to faith, they'll come to their knees in surrender.
[00:38:14] And Father, as we have just repeated to you this morning, Father, we pray that you will continually speak those words that we need to listen to in our hearts.
[00:38:25] And we say to you this morning, let it be to me according to your word. And we believe that those things you have spoken and promised will come to pass. And we receive them in the name of Jesus, amen.
